


Strange Awakenings

by Arlottaness



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy, Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: 80's AU, Alternate Universe, Crossover, F/M, HEA, No spoiler's for TROS, Reylo - Freeform, TFA - Freeform, reylo au, tlj - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-02
Updated: 2020-01-02
Packaged: 2021-02-27 09:20:58
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,944
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22054717
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Arlottaness/pseuds/Arlottaness
Summary: The Reylo Stranger things AU you didnt know you needed.
Relationships: Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Comments: 2
Kudos: 5





	Strange Awakenings

* * *

  
  
  
Hawkins, Indiana, 1983

A solitary bike flew through the dark empty streets of a quiet neighborhood. The boy on the bike was smiling. His mind was elsewhere as he rode rhythmically through the pools of light on the ground from the street lamps. The boy didn’t notice when the lights flickered, but he was forced to press his brakes when one of the bulbs in the lamp above him popped in a shower of sparks. Slowing to a stop he looked up and over his shoulder, breathing heavily. He became aware of the palpable charge in the air, and he began to imagine strange sounds from the woods on either side of him. Moving forward again his breath caught when the streetlights collectively flickered and went out. With a chill crawling up his spine the boy fled down the street.

He was relieved when his house come into view, but worried when his mother’s station wagon was not parked outside. Tossing his bike to the lawn and running inside the boy dumped his backpack on the living room couch and leaned against the front door. “Mom?” he gasped, then managed to yell loudly, “Mom? Poe? Mom?!” Something outside growled and slithered, and instinct took over his body. Throwing himself forward he yanked the phone off the hook, dialing his mom’s work number. He was met with silence at first, then a harsh whispering, slithering through the receiver. Eyes watering, the boy remembered the shot gun they kept in the shed and found himself barreling into the backyard. Finding the gun, and loading it as best as he could remember, he waited. Silence hung over the shed, tension filling the boy’s body, weighing him down. From the pitch-black back of the shed something took a ragged breath. The single naked bulb above the boy grew brighter and brighter, until the room shined. Then it popped and silence and darkness settled back down onto the now empty shed.

* * *

The boy stepped out of the woods, the soft bottoms of his feet protesting the sharp sticks, rocks and leaves that bit into them. Across the street, smoke curled from the chimney of a diner’s tin roof, dancing in graceful patterns, fading into the grey, early-morning sky. The boy observed the empty parking lot, only one car in the area parked on the grass behind the building. Running from the edge of the woods across the asphalt the boy froze at the back door. Peering inside and seeing no one, the boy entered, his footfalls nearly silent.

The kitchen stood empty, aside from a freshly made plate of fries on the counter. Diving for them, he shoved handfuls into his mouth, burning his palette. “Hey! What the fuck?!” shouted a voice from the outer room. The boy grabbed the basket of fries and ran but the burly owner of the diner beat him to the exit, grabbing his shoulder and slamming him into the back of the door. “Who the hell do you think you’re stealing from, asshole!?” yelled the man, pausing when he noticed the dirt caked on the boy’s face. Just as the owner took a step back, a pounding came from the front door, followed by a splintering of wood. “What in the…” gasped the man. The boy wrenched himself free from his grasp, and out the door, tripping over the threshold and skinning his knees on the concrete stoop. Jumping up again he ran for the forest.

He made it four feet before a gunshot rang out. He froze. The birds in the woods had stopped singing and even the wind ceased to rustle through the tops of the trees. The boy turned back to face the diner. Six men in uniform emerged, guns drawn and trained on him.

“Put your hands in the air and get down on the ground!” screamed one of the men. The tall boy complied, lifting is arms and getting to his knees.

A man in the back of the group spoke into a walkie-talkie. “Tell Snoke we have the asset.”

A crackling reply came back. “Yes sir, I…” started the man, but his sentenced finished with a gurgle as he fell to the ground abandoning his walkie and clutching his throat. Another man dropped to the ground, coughing, flecks of blood spraying into the grass by his knees. Reaching out towards the group’s leader, the man gave a wet scream when he looked up to see the heads of the men in front of him swivel towards him, rotating with simultaneous crunches, their legs giving out beneath them.

The sixth man still stood with his gun pointed at the boy, who was once again standing, his arms now outstretch towards the men, hands closing into fists, blood trickling from his nose past his lips, and onto the hospital gown he wore. The man began to quiver, his eyes bloodshot, his pointer finger slowly releasing the trigger, until it bent so far away from the gun, that it met the back of his hand. The gun fell with a firm thud by the man’s feet. A soft cracking noise followed and the man’s shoes, gun, and the grass were showered in red.

Thick silence descended as the last man gurgled and then quieted. The boy inhaled a ragged, shaky breath, turned, and broke off into a sprint, hitting the tree line and disappearing into the woods.

* * *

“I’m going to school!” Rey called out, tripping over the carpeting of books, clothes and plastic snack wrappers that littered the floor of her room as she hopped on one foot to pull on her high tops.

“You better be back before four! I want that Contour stripped and ready by tomorrow morning!” Plutt yelled from the living room.

“Yeah, yeah, don’t freak. I’ll do it.” Rey sighed, rolling her eyes thinking about pulling the parts from the shitty Ford that waited for her in the junkyard, slowly sinking into the soggy grass.

Slinging her backpack on over her shoulder she slipped out the side door. She could hear Plutt’s grumbling about her back-talk as she ran across the wet yard. Ducking under the warped naked chassis of an old mercury, she grabbed the handle bars of her bicycle, wheeling it out onto the gravel driveway and wincing at the squeaks of protestation it made under her weight.

Rey pedaled quickly keeping her rear off of the hole-filled seat and feeling tall as the trees, houses, and lopsided mail boxes of her neighborhood blurred in her peripheral vision. With the humid wind caressing her face, she could almost forget the deteriorated face of the side of town that she lived in, and the musty smell of old car upholstery that seemed to linger on her clothes no matter how often she washed them. She lived with her foster father at the salvage yard he ran on the outskirts of town.

Arriving at school, Rey navigated her way through the crowded hallways making it to her locker just in time to see her best friend Finn rounding the corner.

“Hiya” Rey quipped, opening her locker and preparing for first period.

“Hey,” said Finn “You seen Rose yet this morning?”  
  
“No.” Rey shook her head. “But she’s always early, so she should be here.”  
  
Finn nodded. Rey guessed he was hoping for last minute help with his Pre-Calculus homework. She, Finn and Rose had been close friends since freshman year. The three were in most of the same A.P. classes, with the exception of History and English, which Rey didn’t have enough patience for.  
  
“Who’s early?” snapped Rose from behind them.  
  
“Shit! Don’t do that.” Finn pretended to grab his heart. “Sneaking up out of nowhere, all tiny and quiet.”  
  
Rose made a face and ignored him, turning to Rey instead. “Hi Rey.”  
  
“Hi.” Rey smiled as she threw her stuff in her locker. Finn and Rose were always getting on each other’s nerves for the fun of it.  
  
“Did you guys lose power last night?” Rose asked.  
  
“No,” Rey said, “But the light’s at Plutt’s were on the fritz. I thought it was just his shoddy wiring again.”  
  
“Apparently quite a few neighborhoods lost power.” Rose raised her eyebrows. “Paige was pissed because she was on the phone to some college guy she’s been seeing and got cut off.” Rose’s older sister was a senior, one of the prettiest in the school. She used to join the three friends and hang out from time to time but discovered her power over boys at the end of sophomore year and had been distant ever since.  
  
“Damn. My lights didn’t even blink.” Finn remarked.  
  
“Finn!” Someone shouted from down the hallway. All three friends turned to watch as Poe Dameron jogged toward them.  
  
“Hey guys.” He nodded at Rey and Rose. “Any of you guys seen B.B? I was supposed to drive him here this morning but, I uh, woke up late and he was already gone.” Poe was known to be a bit of a party-goer and seeing him roll into school after the first class wasn’t unusual. He and his younger brother, Brian Bennet Dameron, had transferred to the school two years back, after they were adopted by the school principal, Leia Organa. “I have his lunch, he forgot it again.”  
  
“Sorry, man, I haven’t seen him.” Shrugged Finn. Rose shook her head and looked at Rey.  
  
Rey glanced up and down the hallway, looking for B.B.’s blonde bowl-cut. He was a sweet and snarky freshman that Rey had taken an instant liking to. He liked to help her pull parts in the junkyard from time to time. “Me neither. But I’ll tell him you’re looking for him.” Rey said.  
  
“Thanks.” Poe grinned pausing to look Rey up and down before nodding to the others and walking off.  
  
“Geez, could the guy get any more obvious.” Rose rolled her eyes. A habit of hers.  
  
“What do you mean?” Rey asked  
  
“Just that if he ogled you less blatantly it might not be so annoying.” Rose smiled.  
  
“You shouldn’t be complaining, he is one of the hottest seniors.” Finn quipped, patting Rey on the back and moving to head to class. Rose started to follow. Rey sighed.  
  
“Make sure you have Rose check your calc-homework for Skywalker’s class this afternoon.” Finn narrowed his eyes at Rey as Rose huffed with annoyance in his direction.  
  
  


* * *

  
  
When Rey got home she grabbed a bag of chips and a can of coke from the kitchen and trekked through the junkyard, shoes slapping the damp grass as she passed the newer section filled with nearly-whole station wagons and sedans, and into the more maze-like back section of the yard, where random parts of American muscle and classic imports formed abstract huddles. She gingerly picked her way over parts that had fallen from the taller heaps of metal. This was where she felt most at home, amongst the spare parts.  
The year that she had come to live with Plutt Rey had found a tiny, rust-pitted camper trailer sunken into the ground in the un-visited section of the yard. She had been over the moon to find that not only could she crawl inside through a hole in the back, but the interior was relatively intact and cozy, if a tad musty and damp. It had become her safe-space and she came here every day to finish her homework before going to work picking parts for Plutt.  
Stooping under the curved hood of a Buick Rey moved to flop onto the floor of her fort when she froze. There was a man in her fort. He was curled up in the far corner, staring at her with a fierce glare.  
Rey screamed. Scrambling back out of her hideout Rey’s rear hit the ground hard.  
  
“Holy Shit!” The man didn’t move. Her initial reaction of fear dissipated as her tailbone stung, giving way to a defensive anger. “Who the hell… what are you doing here? This is private property! We, we have like, surveillance cameras and shit!” She shouted, worried for her safety. She was bluffing, knowing her hide-away was out of the view of Plutt’s cheap cameras. If this guy did anything to her no-one would know for a very long time.  
But there was no response from the person in her trailer. Now that she had a moment to look at him, Rey could see he wasn’t quite a man. He was older than her, certainly, but his face was youthful. What she had first thought was an angry glare, she now saw was paralyzing fear. She had shocked him as badly as he had shocked her. His large frame was awkwardly folded into the space, long bony arms wrapped around his shins, dirty, bare feet overlapping each other. He was wearing a hospital gown, and he was crying.  
  
“Shit.” Rey whispered. This seemed to break the deer-in-the-headlights-stare from the boy who shrunk even further into himself. Rey carefully got back onto her feet, crouching at the entrance to her hide-out, her mind racing. The hospital gown was off-putting. He could be an escaped mental patient.  
  
“Are you…ok?” she whispered, heart still pounding. The boy peeked over his knees at Rey, eyes red and swollen. After staring at her for what felt like minutes he slowly shook his head. Rey got the distinct feeling that this boy was not going to hurt her.  
  
“What are you doing here?” she ventured. The boy just kept staring. Unnerved by his refusal to speak, Rey shifted on her feet. Lifting his head the boy finally looked her over. His dark hair was short, and uneven, and stuck out awkwardly over his ears. He wiped a wrist across his eyes and nose. Rey waited, deciding to give him time to answer before asking him more questions.  
  
“I… I am hiding.” He said with a sniffle.  
  
“Well, that’s what I do out here too.” Rey said ruefully. Moments passed. “I’m Rey.” she blurted out. “What’s your name?” She smiled at him, trying to put him at ease.  
  
“Rey.” He breathed, barely audible. He reached out towards her, turning his wrist up to her.  
  
She leaned forward to read the tattoo that crossed the blue-green veins under his pale skin, “Kylo Ren.” She read aloud. She glanced up at his face to find he hadn’t stopped watching her.  
  
“Is… is that your name?” Rey asked incredulously. Some people got weird tattoos but getting one’s own name on your wrist seemed very odd. But the boy nodded.  
  
“Kylo.” Rey nodded too. “You look cold Kylo. Why are you wearing a medical gown?” she tried to ask gently, but knew she sounded a bit judgmental. Kylo just looked confused. “Ok. Um, is there someone I can call-” she started but was stopped short at Kylo’s panicked head shaking.  
  
“Ok.” Rey didn’t know what to do. She looked down at her feet. Her chips and coke lay upended next to her, her backpack tossed behind her. Kylo had moved so that he was leaned towards her from the back of the space.  
  
“There are bad men looking for me.” He spoke above a whisper, his voice deep, but unstable, cracking on the last syllable.  
  
“Bad men?” Rey’s eyes widened. Did he mean the police? Or people from whatever hospital he’d come from? Kylo nodded, intently watching Rey’s reaction.  
  
“Are you...I mean,” Rey huffed. “What happened to you?” He finally looked away from her face.  
  
“I ran away. From my father.” he closed his eyes. The metal structure creaked around them. “He was… they were doing bad things. They wanted me to…” he shook his head. Rey shivered. She was all-too familiar with the kinds of treatment that could be received from hands meant to care for you. She knew the title of “father” did not imply paternal love.  
  
“Shit.” Rey shook her head. “Don’t you have anywhere else you could go?” She regretted saying this immediately. Kylo’s eyes welled with tears again and he shook his head.  
  
“Well. Ok then.” Rey grabbed her Coke and chips and back pack and shuffled into the R.V. “You can stay here.” Kylo’s eyes widened. He opened his mouth to speak but Rey held up a finger. “But don’t do anything…weird, ok? For all I know you could be some serial killer.” She gave him a half smile, she was only half joking. Opening her backpack, she missed the nervous look on Kylo’s face as she pulled out her favorite moth-eaten cardigan.  
  
“Here, put this on. I’ll have to see about getting you something else to wear.” Rey nodded towards his bare feet. “And some shoes.” Kylo painstakingly put the sweater on, it’s sleeves only making it to the middle of his fore-arms. Rey blinked, wondering where she was going to find clothes that would reach the end of his appendages.  
  
“Right. Oh, here, you can have this.” She offered him her coked and chips. He stared at them like they might explode. “Here, I’ll open it for you.” she said, popping the soda can open and handing it to him, and after he gently took it, ripping open the chips.  
As Rey leaned forward to put the chips next to him, Kylo leaned back, the hospital gown riding up his legs, revealing scrapes on his shins and knees.  
  
“You fall?” Rey looked up to see Kylo taking a sip of the soda. He looked down at his shins as if he only just noticed his injuries. He looked back up at her and gave her the worlds smallest smile.  
  
“I like coke.” He said, taking another drink from the red can.  
  
  


* * *

  
  
Rey stood up and cracked her neck. Her hands felt sticky and she was covered in dust, but she was smiling. One of her favorite feelings in the world was hunting for something specific and then finding exactly what you needed. She stuffed the clothes she’d found at the back of Plutt’s closet in her backpack. Who knew her foster father used to be skinny? Rey then ran into her room and added a belt and her largest pair of socks to the collection. She moved to run back to the boy in the R.V. when she remembered his busted knees. She pulled a large pack of band-aids from under the bathroom sink, one of the things she always asked Plutt to get her for the nicks and scrapes that came with working with cars. With her last acquisition she zipped up her bag and ran back out into the yard.  
  
“Here!” Rey called, stooping and entering her hide-out. She threw herself onto the ground and began emptying her backpack. Kylo was now sitting cross-legged on the floor in the center of the trailer.  
  
“We’ve got,” Rey said with a flourish, “Jeans! And this,” she tossed a long-sleeved t-shirt into Kylo’s lap. “And this,” Next came a stiff, brown jacket, “and these.” she waggled her eyebrows, pulling out her socks, and a pair of crusty greying slippers she knew Plutt had forgotten under his bed. The boy looked it all over, his forehead creasing. He glanced at her.  
  
“Yeah, ok, it’s the worst, but it’s all I’ve got cuz, you know, you wouldn’t fit in any of my clothes.” Rey whined. Kylo nodded, standing, and pulled the medical gown off over his head, leaving him in only a pair of short white boxers. Rey jumped up, smashing the crown of her head on the trailer ceiling, but not before getting a clear view of a pale, expansive torso.  
  
“Kylo! What the hell!” She bent down rubbing a hand over her throbbing head. “You can’t just, like, you know… some warning next time! I mean not next time! I mean…” Rey snapped her mouth shut. Looking at the floor she remembered the box of band-aids in her bag.  
  
“Here, put some of these of your knees.” She thrust the box out behind her. There was no reply from Kylo, just the box leaving her hand. Rustling and shuffling sounds came from behind her. They stopped.  
  
“Rey?” She hesitantly turned her head. Kylo had the shirt and jacket on, as well as the socks and slippers. He held the waist of the jeans in his hands, looking down at the ample space between his hips and the waistband, like a weight loss ad’s ‘after’ picture. She choked down a laugh and turned towards him.  
  
“That’s what the belt is for.” She picked up the belt and held it out to him. Kylo looked defeated.  
  
“Oh.” He said, taking the belt and frowning. She pinched the bridge of her nose.  
  
“Do, you, uh.” She shuffled her feet. “Need help?” He nodded, not meeting her eyes. Rey took the belt and stepped in front of Kylo.  
  
“Lift the shirt.” She cleared her throat. He slowly raised the hem of the t-shirt. Threading the belt through the first loop Rey had to hold the jeans up with one hand and pass the belt along behind him, encircling his waist with her arms.  
  
“Who’s never used a belt before.” she mumbled, face heating up as her hands met at the fly of the jeans. She cinched the jeans flush with his flat stomach, her knuckles brushing his skin. She quickly stepped back when she was done. Glancing up she met Kylo’s eyes. He gave her another small smile, but overall, he just looked sad.  
  
“Better?” Rey asked.  
  
He nodded but looked doubtful. “You are being kind to me. Why?”  
  
“Yeah, well, I’m not my parent’s biggest fan’s either, so,” Rey shrugged. “Yeah.” She finished, lamely.  
  
The boy cocked his head. “Your father… is he a bad man too?”  
  
Rey swallowed, Kylo’s eyes boring into her own, searching for something. “Well, he’s not dad of the year, no.” Rey looked Kylo up and down. While Plutt was certainly an awful person, he did supply her with food, and a place to live, the occasional allowance money and lots of personal space. She couldn’t imagine what kind of a father Kylo had that he would choose to run away from a medical facility, bleeding and nearly naked, to avoid him.  
  
“You can stay out here, as long as you need to.” Rey offered, turning and picking up her backpack. She stepped to the entrance of the trailer. A cool breeze hit her warm face, carrying with it a few drops of rain.  
  
“Rey?” She turned to look at Kylo, who had his arms folded across his stomach.  
  
“Thank you.” He said softly.  
  
She nodded and then stepped out and ran across the yard as the sprinkling turned into a downpour, filling the trailer with the loud white noise of water on metal.  
  
  


* * *

  
  
Leia Organa was normally a very put together person, but at the moment the forty-something school principal was stumbling through the woods behind her house shouting into the late afternoon sun.  
  
“B.B! Brian! B.B!”  
  
“Mom, he’s not out here, I told you I looked already.” Poe spoke sadly from behind her as Leia rummaged through B.B.’s tree fort.  
  
“Yes, Poe, I heard you when you said that. But seeing as you lied to me about what time you got home last night, I thought I better trust my own eyes!” Turning to look at her older child Leia sighed, running her hands through her hair. “I’m sorry Poe. I am just very worried about your brother. This is not like him!”  
  
Poe swallowed the lump in his throat. “I know mom. And I’m so sorry about last night. But we’ve got to stay calm. He’s a smart kid-”  
  
“He is a child!” Leia snapped.  
  
Poe stood with his hands shoved in his pockets. He had never seen his mom get this worked up. Leia was an unflappable, professional principal, and a firm, nurturing mother. She was never hysterical. Watching her hands shaking as she stood in the little lean-to his brother built, its bed-sheet doorway dancing in the wind, Poe felt fear blooming in his gut, sour and sharp.  
  
“We have to talk to Sheriff Solo, mom.” Poe said.  
  
“Oh, believe me,” Leia growled, striding back towards their house. “I’ve had a talk with Han.”  
  
  


* * *

  
  
“I want those worksheets back to me by Friday, with all work shown on a separate sheet of paper! If I can’t read your writing I can’t grade it!” Professor Skywalker spoke above the roar of students trying to exit the space, excited for the end of the school day. Rey hung back from the other students, smiling at Rose and Finn as the waved goodbye, approaching her teacher’s desk once the room was silent.  
  
“Did it come?” she asked hopefully.  
  
“Well Rey,” Professor Skywalker looked down, removing his glasses. “I am sorry to say that it has.”  
  
Rey beamed, laughing at Skywalker’s begrudging answer. She followed on his heels as he left the classroom and unlocked the door to the closet-sized space occupied by the Hawkins A.V. club. On the desk in the middle of the room proudly sat a gleaming array of Heathkit Ham radio parts.  
  
“Woah,” breathed Rey.  
  
“I know.” Skywalker nodded, showing a brief moment of approval for Rey’s reverent stare. “You’ll have to put it together, and it won’t be easy. But then it will be, for all intents and purposes, yours.”  
  
Rey sat behind the desk, fingers itching to begin assembling the parts for the radio. Before she came to Hawkins, the A.V. club had been nothing more than a rolling rack of old radios and a grumpy Professor who had canned the program. But with Rey’s enthusiasm, and her friend’s willingness to pitch in occasionally, it now consisted of herself, B.B. and a still grumpy, if not more so now, Professor Skywalker.  
  
“Where’s the young Dameron boy?” He asked, crossing his arms in the doorway. Rey stopped inspecting a sparkling transistor. Where was B.B? Now that she gave it a thought, she hadn’t seen Poe yet today either. After staying up late pulling parts off the old Ford for a very displeased Plutt, Rey had gone to bed exhausted. Her morning had been a hazy one, and in her rush to school, and spending the day wondering over the boy she had hidden in her trailer, B.B. hadn’t crossed her mind.  
  
Opening her mouth to respond Rey was cut off by Sheriff Han Solo who now stood scowling in the doorway next to her professor.  
  
“You.” He chucked his chin at her, “you know that B.B. kid?” Nodding, Rey’s eyes widened.  
  
“You better come to Organa’s office and answer a few questions then.” Solo said, leaving the doorway and walking down the hall. Rey glanced at her Professor, who was looking more concerned than she had ever seen him.  
  
“You had better follow him, Rey.”  
  
Rey got to the principal’s office as Daren Oakley, red faced and shaking, scurried from the doorway and down the hall. Stepping inside, Rey took a seat in front of Sheriff Solo and his deputy, officer Calrissian.  
  
“So, Poe Dameron told us B.B. spends a good deal of time with you.” Solo said lowly.  
  
“Kinda.” Rey answered. “He comes over sometimes to play with the cars, I live at the salvage yard, Plutt’s? Anyway, he comes over to hang out. Messes with stuff.”  
  
“Hm.” Solo stared. Calrissian scribbled in a notebook.  
  
“Oh, and he’s a member of the A.V. club. With me. It’s just us actually-”  
  
“You know anyone else he spends time with?” Solo cut her off. Rey thought for moment.  
  
“Not anyone besides D.O. and Poe. And I guess you’ve talked…to both of them.”  
  
“Hm.” Solo made the same noise, neither in affirmation or denial. If the Sheriff was now involved, and Poe wasn’t in school, Rey knew B.B. hadn’t been found yet. And this meant he hadn’t been seen since the night before last.  
  
“Is he… is B.B. missing?”  
  
“You can go now.” Solo stood up motioning for Calrissian to do the same.  
  
“Wait! But is B.B. ok? Does no one know where he is? What about his mom, Leia-”  
  
“Ms. Organa has been in contact with us.” Solo snapped, cutting Rey off again. “Now you need to run along. That doesn’t mean pestering Ms. Organa, or us, or running off anywhere to look for the boy, got it?” Rey’s open mouth snapped shut. She glared at the man before her. “I said, got it?” Solo asked, voice low in warning.  
  
“Oh yeah. I got it.” Rey gave the men a humorless-smile, turning on her heel and walking out of the office.  
  
  


* * *

Rey’s high tops fought with the gravel as she made across the driveway. Her mind was on B.B. The boy was bright, and sarcastic, but also shy and sensitive and he never stayed away from Poe for very long. B.B. worshiped his older brother. He would never run away, as Rey suspected the Sherriff believed. Just because the Dameron’s were adopted did not mean they were loose cannons. They had it good, Rey believed, at least, better than she ever had.  
  
Reaching her trailer, Rey paused. She’d forgotten to grab something from the kitchen for Kylo to eat. She mentally kicked herself as she stooped and went inside. The space was empty except for Kylo’s discarded medical gown. Rey stood there. She wasn’t exactly surprised, but something gnawed at her ribcage that felt suspiciously like disappointment.  
  
Rey walked back into the house. The place was quiet and cold but stepping into the kitchen Rey felt stifled. It was dark and when Rey flicked at the light switch nothing happened. Sighing, she moved into the living room on her way to the basement, where she regularly had to reset the fuses. In front of the tiny television sat Plutt’s favorite armchair, a spotted beige from years of sweaty use and junk food stains. It rocked slightly back and forth. Rey watched it for a moment, pausing at the top of the basement stairs. She glanced down them. The pool of darkness at the bottom had never unnerved her before, but today she was on edge.  
  
“Where the hell is Plutt when you need him.” She whispered to break the silence. The silence didn’t seem happy.  
  
Stepping down the stairs, avoiding the creakiest ones, Rey made her way past boxes of junk to the fuse box where she froze at a sound. Something was dragging on the ground behind one of the stacks of boxes. Rey slowly turned, her eyes watering in fear. Something growled. Rey felt two strong arms grab her from behind and drag her up the stairs. She screamed as the growl increased, turning into a gurgling howl. Twisting to get away from the arms around her waist, she fell through the basement door onto the shag carpet, flipping onto her back and scuttling backwards as the door slammed shut.  
  
Kylo stood against it, hands up in front of him. “Rey?”  
  
Rey panted. Her voice squeaked. “Kylo?!”  
  
The boy nodded, lowering his hands back against the door.  
  
“What are you doing in the house? I was worried… I mean I thought you left.” She sat up.  
  
Kylo shook his head, eyes lowering to look at the door knob by his hips.  
  
“What was that in the basement?” Rey got to her feet, moving further into the living room.  
  
Kylo didn’t answer, but he slowly eased himself away from the door. “I don’t know.” He said apologetically.  
  
Looking around the room, which seemed brighter somehow, Rey noticed the half-empty beer bottle and bag of jerky on the side table by the lazy-boy. “Oh god, if Plutt finds you in here we’re dead!” She lunged forward grabbing Kylo’s hand and pulling him toward her room. Once inside Rey closed the door and put her folding chair beneath the handle. Once she was sure that Plutt would not find Kylo, Rey noticed his hand was still in hers. She dropped it and looked away.  
  
“We should stay in here. ‘til I know Plutt won’t see you.”  
  
“Plutt?” Kylo asked  
  
“My foster father.” Rey turned so sit on her unmade bed. “There was something in the basement. Didn’t you hear it? Some animal or something.” She twisted her sheets in one hand, looking up at a concerned Kylo.  
  
“Something bad.” He nodded, folding his arms over his stomach.  
  
Rey glanced around her dirty room, her breathing evening out now that she felt safer. “What were you doing in there, Kylo?” she asked. She realized he may have been bored, she would have been, sitting in that trailer all day with nothing to do.  
  
“Looking for you.” Kylo said, looking at the floor.  
  
“Oh.” Rey said.  
  
Kylo lifted his head and motioned to the living room. “I saw a man. And then I felt the bad thing in the basement. I was waiting outside. I came in because…” he paused, making eye contact with her.  
  
“What?” Rey pushed.  
  
“You were here. You were scared.” He said.  
  
“Oh.” Rey felt her face heat from confusion and the niceness of knowing someone was concerned for her. “You can sit down if you want.” She said, indicating the end of her bed. “Are you hungry?”  
  
Kylo’s eyes widened. “Do you have more coke?”  
  
Rey chuckled. “Not in here, sorry. But I do have some HoHo’s that I’ve been saving.” She stood and rummaged through the top drawer of her dresser where she had been hiding the chocolate snacks.  
  
“Ho ho’s?” Kylo said with suspicion, easing himself onto the mattress.  
  
“Yeah! You want one?” Rey smiled turning to hold up the plastic-wrapped delicacy.  
  
“I don’t know.” Kylo’s brows came together as he inspected the crinkly package she set in his hands. He opened the bag and extracted one of the pastries.  
  
“Bite it.” Rey encouraged.  
  
He looked at her doubtfully.  
  
“Kylo, trust me.” Rey smiled again. Taking a large bite of her own set.  
  
“I do.” Kylo said earnestly, putting it in his mouth. As he chewed his eyes widened and he looked closer at the cake in his hands. “It’s good.”  
  
“Duh!” Rey laughed, polishing off the crumbs from her fingers.  
  
Finishing their snack, the two fell silent. Rey kneading her bottom lip with her teeth.  
  
“Rey,” Kylo said lowly, “Something is wrong.”  
  
“Yeah, there’s some huge animal in my basement and Plutt’s gonna be home any second and we’ll be stuck in here ‘til he passes out around 7!” Rey griped half-heartedly.  
  
“No.” Kylo shook his head, scooting closer to Rey. “Something is wrong with you.”  
  
Rey raised her eyebrows. “I’m gonna assume you mean I seem down, not that I’m some kind of weirdo.”  
  
“Yes.” Kylo’s mouth quirked up at the corner.  
  
Rey sighed. “My friend is missing. He hasn’t been to school or seen since the day before last. He’s a small kid. I guess I’m really worried about him.” She kicked her feet against the floor.  
  
“You care about him.” Kylo supplied.  
  
“Yeah. And I’m so mad at that stupid Sherriff for telling me not to look for him! He didn’t even let me tell him about the A.V. club, and how B.B. spends time in the woods testing the walkie talkies we fix up.” She balled her hands into fists in the sheets. “I bet the Sheriff thinks he ran off ‘cuz he was a foster kid….”  
  
“Foster?” Kylo asked.  
  
“Yeah, like, when you don’t have parents, or something happens to them and you go to live with someone else. I’m one too.” Rey explained.  
  
He looked thoughtful. “Can I be a foster kid?”  
  
Rey’s chest constricted at the hopeful tone in Kylo’s voice. “Maybe. How old are you anyway?” She inspected his face for a moment. Now that he was closer to her, and the light was warm and bright in her bedroom, Kylo looked considerably younger.  
  
“I don’t know.” He looked ashamed.  
  
“How do you not know?” Rey turned towards him, pulling her legs up onto the bed and under her. “That’s so weird, Kylo.” She said, sympathetically. She watched him for a minute. His body looked older than he seemed. If she had to guess, she’d say he was anywhere from eighteen to twenty-eight.  
  
“Rey?” Kylo caught her staring.  
  
“Yeah?”  
  
“It’s gone. The man too.”  
  
Rey frowned. “What do you mean? The animal in the basement?”  
  
“It took him.” Kylo said apologetically.  
  
“What do you mean, it took him?” Rey raised her voice. “Took him where, outside? How do you know that?”  
  
Kylo shook his head. “Not outside, a bad place. I…” he made a helpless gesture with his hands.  
  
“It took him to a bad place…” Rey repeated. Her head began to ache from the confusion.  
  
“The dark side.” Kylo said. Rey just stared at him. “It’s like here, but it’s not here. It’s sick, and its…bad.” Kylo’s eyes pleaded for Rey to understand.  
  
“You’re not making sense, Kylo.”  
  
“You don’t believe me.” He said sadly. Standing, Kylo moved away from the bed. He raised his right hand like he was holding something.  
  
“It’s not that, I just don’t get-” Rey began but her words faded as she watched an assortment of nuts and washers she had on her dresser lift into the air and gracefully float towards her face. They looped around her head and shoulders, dipping and twirling around her like insects. Rey watched as they gently came to rest in a neat row at the foot of her bed. Rey felt like her stomach was fighting its way up her throat.  
  
“Did…did you just do that?” She whispered, like talking too loudly might break the spell that seemed to hang in the air.  
  
Kylo nodded once.  
  
Rey’s voice went up an octave. “Like, you did that? With your mind?”  
  
“With the force.” Kylo corrected her. He clenched his fist and abruptly moved it to the left, the collection of metal pieces flew across the room, landing back on Rey’s dresser with a series of tiny clinks.  
  
“That’s so amazing! You’re amazing!” It took Rey a couple minutes to stop staring and process the levitation she had just witnessed. She stood up, ogling the boy in front of her. “But how do you know the thing in the basement is gone.”  
  
“I can feel it.” Kylo shrugged.  
  
“Holy… shit.” Rey breathed “You’re like, a real-life super hero.” She walked to her dresser scooping some washers into her palm.  
  
“No.” Kylo snapped.  
  
Rey looked at him.  
  
“I’m not a hero.”  
  
Rey ignored him. “What else can you feel?”  
  
Kylo sat back down. “Mostly people. Living things. I can hear things. Know things.”  
  
“Can you read peoples thoughts?” Rey gasped.  
  
Kylo smiled a little. “Some people.”  
  
“What?!” Rey said excitedly. Then frowned. “Wait. Can you read mine?!”  
  
Kylo smiled even more. “Yes. You’re very loud.”  
  
Rey blushed. “Well don’t! They’re private!” She whined.  
  
Kylo stared at her blankly. “Why?”  
  
Rey blinked. “It’s just, not right, I guess.”  
  
“Oh.” Kylo looked ashamed again.  
  
“I mean, its cool. Really cool! But, if you know everything I’m thinking-”  
  
“It doesn’t work like that.” Kylo interrupted. “Oh.” Rey began to pace. “How does it work? Tell me what I’m thinking right now.”  
  
Kylo searched her face with his eyes. “I can’t. Your hiding it.”  
  
“Oh.” Rey shook her head. “How about now?” She tried to visualize an object. She thought of Kylo’s age, and birthdays.  
  
“You are…thinking about me.” Kylo said emphatically. Rey blanched. “What! No, I was thinking about birthday cake!” She scrunched her forehead, thinking hard about vanilla frosting and sprinkles.  
  
Kylo looked bemused. “No, you are thinking of me… you like my face.” He looked surprised.  
  
“Ok stop it, I’m not thinking that!” Rey gasped. Her mind had, at the very last second skipped from cake, back to his age, and then to his face.  
  
“You think I am… you like how it looks.” Kylo smiled.  
  
“Kylo! Stop.” Rey was sure her face was red. He had a really great smile, you could see his crooked teeth and he had dimples.  
  
“You feel-” Kylo began to say teasingly.  
  
“I said stop!” Rey cried, stamping her foot. She suddenly felt like a child.  
  
“Sorry.” Kylo looked chastised.  
  
Rey sighed and sat on the bed. “Look friends respect each other’s privacy, ok?”  
  
“Friends?” Kylo said disbelievingly.  
  
“Yeah, like, it’s not fair to know what other people feel or think about certain things, it makes it weird. Like, friends need boundaries.” Rey exclaimed.  
  
“Boundaries.” Kylo said as if to commit he word to memory.  
  
“Yeah, and they’re own vocabularies.” Rey mumbled.  
  
Kylo looked annoyed.  
  
Rey waved her hands in her lap. “Anyway… So wait, you can feel that that thing is gone. And it took Plutt.” Rey didn’t know how she felt about that. “Is he ok?”  
  
Kylo looked away. “I can’t tell.”  
  
Something occurred to Rey “if you can feel where Plutt is… can you feel where B.B. is?”  
  
Kylo looked thoughtful. “Maybe. Sometimes I can find people. Father used to…he used to ask me to do that.”  
  
Rey noticed the emphasis Kylo put on ‘ask’ and guessed that he hadn’t really had a choice in the matter.  
  
“So, you think you can find B.B? That would be amazing!” Rey felt her mood lift with the hope of quickly finding her young friend. “But only if you want to!” She said quickly.  
  
Kylo took a deep breath. “I can find him. But not here.” Kylo looked away.  
  
Rey leaned forward to meet his eyes. “Where? What do you need?”

**Author's Note:**

> Hi!  
> This is my first foray into fanfic in a long time.  
> Constructive criticism and feedback is appreciated!  
> Hope this is enjoyed,  
> Arlottaness


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